Renato Osoy is a photographer from Guatemala, he graduated in photography at the Art Institute of Colorado in 1996. He assisted Photographers in the field of fashion in NY and Miami until 1998. He worked in fashion photography and business in Guatemala, then he started to use photography as a means of

artistic expression.

Before we start we want to thank you for the opportunity to interview you.

First I would like to ask you how and when you started in photography?

I started taking a photography course en1994 at Rafael Landivar University in that year I was really interested in photography, then I left the communications career and decided to go directly to study photography at the Art Institute of Colorado.

What is the most important thing to you when you are making or taking a picture?

I think the most important thing is to have a personal justification either emotional or intellectual, a real need to want to take a picture, wanting to communicate something.

Where did the inspiration come from for your projects?

From different points, the subjects in my visual creation vary according to my temperament and inclination. After that I have a clearer sense I look at different sources of inspiration.

What photographers or artists do you admire and why?

My favorite is Jeff Wall, for his ability to innovate both in the position of photography and as a medium in contemporary art.

Tell us a little about your creative process?

I'm constantly feeding information by different means, both in what is happening in the contemporary art scene, as what has made history. I think it's important for every artist to consume influences of other artists to create a good frame of reference and form a solid basis of our understanding of expression and communication.I would say my creative process is constant and evolving, a type of lifestyle. Let's say it would not work for me to wake up one day and say, I do art!

I think is more that I constantly engaged in the business and eventually converge variants that lead me to create something, to realize the concept.

What is your opinion about photography in Guatemala?

I don´t know if I could talk about it without falling into dark alleys of the "picture in Guatemala," I believe that photography is now global. What I could affirm is that in Guatemala is reaching a kind of "hype" with photography, in a solid way, it will eventually produce a scene of a quite powerful visual artists to the region. It is an excellent time for any Guatemalan person concerned in the photography, to start in this environment.

What are you working on now?

A joint project with CIRMA, based on the use of the photographic archive.

What advice would you give new photographers or photographers who are starting out?

Dive into photography ...! Breathe, eat and produce images.

What do you expect from your visit to Guatemala and the workshop which will be providing?

I really hope to share knowledge and questions with all those lovers of visual creation. I am very interested to know the thoughts of others and transmitted through photography.

In that line of thinking I hope to guide developers in their individual search as expressed or want to take their personal point of view by using photography. In general I would say I'm always looking to feel inspired and surround myself with people inspired. My greatest satisfaction is to give a workshop where others connect with their creative and share it in context, to create dynamic energy stocks.

Our blog´s mission is to create a document of contemporary photography that presents the latest trends, history, institutions, photographers and news to serve as a source for inspiration, promotion and education to the photographic community.